Basic Configuration - 2960

[bcaricofe]

Hello,

I recently acquired a 2960 (WS-C2960-24TT-L) 24-port switch to power a cabinet I'm about to lease. I have little IOS experience other than helping to manage a few ASA's more than 3 years ago, and would like to configure this switch to work as simply as possible. I'm able to login via the console and have done a few factory resets at this point and I'm not able to get anything connected through the switch. None of the servers or workstations I've attached to any port have caused the nic lights to come on, however, attaching my home network to fa0/1 does give me a green light.

I spent 4 hours on this yesterday and followed several of the Cisco documents and other how-to posts from around the web and am not able to get a basic working configuration. I really just want to plug my home network into fa0/1, and then get connectivity on the other ports for a few servers. What do I need to do for this?

Thanks!

[bcaricofe]

I'm basically trying to do what this guy mentions:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/165372

What the first responder, Russel, posts, is exactly what I've been doing and it's not working. Bad switch?

[Reza Sharifi]

It may not necessarily be a bad switch since you get green light when you connect your home network to it.

Are the server's NIC 10/100?

Also, when you login to the switch and you connect a device to one of the port, do you see the port in up and up, up and down?

Are all 24 ports act the same?

Can you post "sh run" and "sh ip int brief"?

HTH

[bcaricofe]

Hi Reza, thank you for the reply. Both servers and my laptop have 10/100/1000 nics. When I connect any of them to the switch, I see no updates in the console. Yes, all 24 ports exhibit the same behavior. Here is the output you requested:

Switch#sh run
Building configuration...

Current configuration : 1174 bytes
!
version 12.2
no service pad
service timestamps debug uptime
service timestamps log uptime
no service password-encryption
!
hostname Switch
!
!
no aaa new-model
ip subnet-zero
!
!
!
!
no file verify auto
spanning-tree mode pvst
spanning-tree extend system-id
!
vlan internal allocation policy ascending
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
!
interface FastEthernet0/2
!
interface FastEthernet0/3
!
interface FastEthernet0/4
!
interface FastEthernet0/5
!
interface FastEthernet0/6
!
interface FastEthernet0/7
!
interface FastEthernet0/8
!
interface FastEthernet0/9
!
interface FastEthernet0/10
!
interface FastEthernet0/11
!
interface FastEthernet0/12
!
interface FastEthernet0/13
!
interface FastEthernet0/14
!
interface FastEthernet0/15
!
interface FastEthernet0/16
!
interface FastEthernet0/17
!
interface FastEthernet0/18
!
interface FastEthernet0/19
!
interface FastEthernet0/20
!
interface FastEthernet0/21
!
interface FastEthernet0/22
!
interface FastEthernet0/23
!
interface FastEthernet0/24
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/2
!
interface Vlan1
no ip address
no ip route-cache
!
ip http server
!
control-plane
!
!
line con 0
line vty 5 15
!
end

Switch#sh ip int brief

Interface              IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol

Vlan1                  unassigned      YES unset  up                    down

FastEthernet0/1        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/2        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/3        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/4        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/5        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/6        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/7        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/8        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/9        unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/10       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/11       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/12       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/13       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/14       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/15       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/16       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/17       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/18       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/19       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/20       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/21       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/22       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/23       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

FastEthernet0/24       unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

GigabitEthernet0/1     unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

GigabitEthernet0/2     unassigned      YES unset  down                  down

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

Everything looks normal.

Was this switch working before or is it new unit?

According to the data sheet this switch comes with 24 10/100 ports and 2 10/100/1000 ports.

What happens if you plug the laptop to one of the 10/100/1000 ports.

Are the system and status lights green?

Data sheet table-14

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps6406/product_data_sheet0900aecd80322c0c.html

HTH

[acampbell]

Hi,

It may be an idea to turn on portfast

switch#

conf t

!

spanning-tree portfast default

!

end

copy run start

Then plug in a device

Regards,
Alex.
Please rate useful posts.

[bcaricofe]

I purchased it off eBay from a reputable seller. I've tried the gig ports too; no luck. The system and status lights are the only ones on, and are solid green. I'm stumped...is there really nothing else to do after a factory reset, than attach it to a network and start plugging in devices? That should work, right?

[Reza Sharifi]

It apears that switch has some sort of hardware issue and seller on eBay didn't tell you about it.

Couple more suggestions:

reboot and watch to see if the switch goes through the normal process of booting

if not maybe an IOS upgrade can help, if not contact the seller and see if he can replace it or return it.

HTH

[tony.henry_2 · Accepted solution]

Bcaricofe,

Could you try plugging the home network into another port? I'd like to see if it the status changes on a different ports other than fa0/1.

I'd also force the ports a speed and a duplex rather than leaving it in the default auto. 10/100 interfaces are pretty hopless to leave at auto, configuring portfast is also a good idea, except if plugging into another switch.

Tony

[bcaricofe]

Thanks very much to both of you for helping me, but Tony, I think you nailed it. None of my devices were autonegotiating. As soon as I set the adapter on my laptop to 100 / full duplex, I made a connection. I was able to upgrade to the latest recommended IOS version for the 2960 as well. I still don't have it connected properly to my network, but this was a huge advancement. Thanks!